Woodland repeats as state champion Dragons were ‘mobile, agile, hostile’

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AUGUSTA – For the past two seasons, Woodland coach Arnie Clark has tried to drill into his girls that they are mobile, agile and hostile. This year the Dragons have sported that phrase on T-shirts and posters.

Woodland lived up to that phrase, and more, in Saturday’s Class D state championship game against Rangeley.

Ashley Marble poured in a game-high 27 points and Julia Knights nearly had a triple-double in points, rebounds and assists to lead the parade of stellar Dragon performances at the Augusta Civic Center as Woodland cruised to a 75-46 victory and its second straight championship.

The Dragons set a Class D state final record for points scored with 75. The old record of 74 was set in 1981 by John Bapst of Bangor.

“We know that to win, we have to be mobile, agile and hostile,” said Knights, who racked up 13 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Want mobile? The Dragons forced 23 turnovers in the first half, including 12 in the first quarter, as they raced out to a 23-11 lead.

“We wanted to press them, disturb their ballhandlers,” Knights said. “We ran on them and when they committed turnovers we converted.”

How about agile? Woodland put in 30 field goals, 23 of which came off passes from teammates.

And hostile? How about 12 blocks, including six from Knights. One was particularly impressive, a swat she hit with a loud whack that landed in the crowd.

You can add smart to that, too. Woodland had shut down Rangeley’s perimeter game but was unable to consistently stop 5-foot-9 Rangeley standout Sarah Drosdik. She cut the lead to 24-16 when she put back a rebound.

Senior guard Marble suggested a box-and-1 defense, with her guarding 5-9 Laker junior Drosdik, despite the fact that Woodland not played it in a game this year.

“There was a timeout and I said, ‘Coach, just put me on Drosdik. Let me play her one-on-one,'” Marble said. “The four girls that were playing the box, I give them all the credit. I just ran around and followed her.”

Rangeley stayed within nine points well into the quarter, although Marble and Megan Lord combined on two baskets (each had an assist on the other’s score) to close out the half with a 13-point Woodland lead.

Woodland stayed in the defense for most of the game. Drosdik, who scored 10 points in the first half, didn’t score again until she put in the last hoop of the game.

“Ashley is a competitor and she felt, I’m sure, that Drosdik is the one who’s scoring, and she can’t score if I got her,” Clark said. “They got a couple of backdoors on us but they didn’t go to her many times after that.”

The box also came in handy because the Lakers had drawn three fouls apiece on 5-10 Katie Smith and the 5-10 Knights (both girls were on the bench with 3:16 to go in the half).

“We had their two big girls on the bench and that was our chance to do something,” Rangeley coach Heidi Deery said. “… At that point in the game I thought about mixing it up defensively but our man-to-man defense was what got us there all season and I felt with those two out we could crank it up and get going a little bit and see if we could bring it back within eight or five for the half.”

Drosdik still had a fine game, scoring 13 points and contributing game highs in rebounds (15) and steals (eight). Kelly Grant led the Lakers with 16 points and Krysteen Romero had 14 rebounds.

Woodland’s Lauren Troiani came off the bench to score 11 points. Kaitlyn Leeman, a 5-2 guard, added six rebounds, six assists and five steals.

DRAGONS 75, LAKERS 46

Woodland (21-2) Rangeley (21-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Marble 10 19 6 10 27 A. Frost-Kolva 1 3

Brown 1 4 0 0 2 Frost 0 1 0

Kochendoerfer 0 0 0 0 0 L. O’Neill 0

Murphy 0 0 0 0 0 Ellis 0 2 0

Snowman 0 0 0 1 0 K. Drosdik 0 0

Leeman 2 5 1 2 7 D. O’Neill 0 0

Smith 5 7 0 0 10 S. Drosdik 5 14 3 6 13

Newman 0 0 0 0 0 Romero 3 16 9

Lord 1 1 2 2 4 LaPointe 0 0 0

St. Pierre 0 0 0 0 0 J. Frost-Kolva 0 0

Troiani 5 8 1 4 11 Grant 5 11 12 16

V. Knights 0 0 0 0 0 Schrader 1 5

J. Knights 6 11 0 0 13

Seavey 0 0 0 0 0

Vose 0 0 1 2 1

Totals 30 55 11 21 75 Totals 15 54 16 34 46

Woodland 23 36 58 75

Rangeley 11 23 32 46

3-pt. goals: Woodland (4-8): Leeman 2-2, J. Knights 1-1, Marble 1-4, Brown 0-1; Rangeley (0-1): A. Frost-Kolva 0-1